Five hundred workers who've lost their jobs at a big banana estate in Eastern Jamaica, have been speaking of their fears for the future.

	While Wibdeco's busy planting more bananas, its Jamaican counterpart's cutting back because of storm damage

The owners closed the business because of the destruction caused by Hurricane Gustav in August.

The workers assembled were being given their redundancy payments on Friday - their posts were made redundant because the property was destroyed by Tropical Storm Gustav in August.

Some of them appealed to the government to assist them find alternatives.

No Hess Oil refinery for St Lucia

The St Lucia government's trying to deal with the fallout from an announcement by Hess Oil that the company has no current plans to build a multi-million dollar oil refinery on the island.

	St Lucia won't be getting one of these any time soon

The government had indicated that work had already begun on the facility, expected to create many jobs for locals.

On Friday the trade minister Rufus Bousquet, appeared to be putting the blame for the confusion over the issue squarely on the shoulders of Prime Minister Stephenson King.

He said the prime minister had relied on information that he Mr Bousquet felt "would not have been accurate", especially since his statements seemed to contradict those coming from Hess officials.

Violence against Dom Rep-based Haitians condemned

Officials in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic have condemned this week's violence against Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

Reports from the northwestern province of Guayubin say at least two Haitians have been killed and the homes of two dozens migrants torched, in reprisals for the killing of a Dominican man, reportedly at the hands of a Haitian migrant.

Dominican police say the disturbance began on Monday after a Haitian migrant allegedly killed a local man who stole his motorcycle.

Mitchell not American citizen

The Charge d'Affaires at the US Embassy in St. George's, KarenJo McIsaac has cleared the air about allegations that former Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell is a citizen of the United States.

	Keith Mitchell gave up his American citizenship

Explaining that he no longer has that status, Ms McIsaac told reporters on Thursday that the date of the revocation of Dr Mitchell's citizenship was 20th June 1995.

The NDC government has been trying to establish the citizenship status of Dr Mitchell, and said earlier this week it had confirmation from the US Justice Department that the former prime minister was still an American citizen.

Dr Mitchell who is the current opposition leader in parliament, had refuted those allegations.

Downward slide for remittances

It's being predicted that growth in remittances, the money migrants send home, is likely to be minimal at best this year because of the slowdown in the global economy.

Remittances represent one of the biggest sources of foreign currency for Caribbean nations, and crucially, are the key to achieving financial independence for millions of families.

The World Bank says it is concerned about the cost of sending money -- some money transfer agencies can add five, ten, fifteen, twenty percent per transaction, depending on both the source and its destination.

Leaders meet in London

Leaders of British overseas territories in the Caribbean have ended a meeting with UK ministers in London.

There were the usual topics such as the sometimes prickly relationships between British governors and local leaders -- and the regulation of financial services in the territories.

But there was also time for the environment -- a key topic for small island states.

However the Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Ralph O'Neal says he would have liked to have seen much more time given to the discussions on the environment.